Star Wars: Origin Of Darth Vader's Lightsaber To Be Revealed

As the Star Warsuniverse expands it's new rebooted canon across the shared platforms of movies, games, books, and television, we're getting more and more "gap-filler" stories, which provide deeper insight into the franchise's mythos, characters, and even its iconic artifacts.

The latter is will be the subject of a second Star Wars in-canon ongoing comic book series from Marvel Comics, titled (fittingly enough) Darth Vader.

The series will be written by Marvel Star Wars comic scribe, Charles Soule (Anakin, Poe Dameron), with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli. The premise is that the series will pick up with Vader's time immediately following the events of Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.

Soule described the book as "Darth Vader: Year One," revealing to IGNthat: “The book begins one second after the end of Revenge of the Sith. Darth Vader is in the armored suit...he has shouted ‘No!’ in the way we see in the film, and then it picks up immediately after that point. So we see him adjusting to that. We see him learning to be more machine than man. We see him going through some really, really cool early moments of his early mythology and history."

That's different from the more intimate character development story from Marvel's previous Vader comic book series, which was set between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, detailing how Vader bounced back from defeat at the end of the first Star Wars. Since the new series will focus more on Anakin gradually accepting his new role as Darth Vader, Soule is using the opportunity to really explore the (hopefully) rich history behind the character's iconic appearance - starting with his famous lightsaber!

“The first arc is going to revolve around Vader's construction of his red lightsaber, because at the end of Revenge of the Sith, he obviously loses his blue saber when he gets all chopped up and Obi-Wan takes it to eventually give to Luke down the road. So we end up with a character who is known as having this iconic sword, like his magical red sword, but he doesn't have it yet. So what better way to start a big huge series than with a quest for a magic sword?”

(Photo: Marvel Comics)

The writer also stated that some more expansive mythology on lightsabers will also be explored in the story. That's probably a good thing, since after The Force Awakens, the mythology of lightsabers (specifically those in the Skywalker clan) has become ever more important. While the main Episode films may not have time to invest in exploring the issue, the Star Wars canonized literature and TV series (Like Star Wars Rebelsand Clone Wars) are all broaching the subject.

Darth Vader #1 will arrive in June. Are you excited for Star Wars: The Last Jedi? Let us know by ranking the film in the Movie Database below!

Star Wars: The Last Jedi2017

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, from writer/director Rian Johnson, is in post-production now for a December 15, 2017 release. The film follows-up and continues the story of the next generation of the saga as Rey, Poe, Finn, and Kylo Ren find their place in the galaxy and follow the legacy of Luke Skywalker, Leia, and Han Solo. Daisy Ridley returns to star as Rey, with other returning stars John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Peter Mayhew, Andy Serkis, Anthony Daniels, Lupita Nyong'o Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa. Benicio Del Toro and Laura Dern join the cast in as-yet-unrevealed roles.